Choosing the Best Ecommerce platform for your online store

Not many people know but “big commerce” is a Australia, Sydney-based software start-up company that provides end to end services to start your ecommerce online store. Well really it is no more a start- up as it is now well established portal for online storefront websites. They currently power over 95,000 online shops and have processed over $5 billion in transactions and that is no easy task .Its even got its top competitors like “Shopify” “Volusion” “3Dcart” worried. They have good store design add ons and also provide website store examples to give you an idea of how your store can look.

Bigcommerce was founded by BRW Young Rich Listers Eddie Machaalani and Mitchell Harper. Their customers list boasts some top companies like Samsung, Marvel, Cetaphil and Ubisoft yet they have affordable plans for smaller ecommerce stores. Below is our review on BC focusing on what’s important to you.

Building an online business store is no easy task and trust me I have gone through this well and truly a few times to know how hard it can be.There is more involved in starting a ecommerce store than it is for just starting a blog or website, however software companies like Big Commerce and Shopify have made this task much easier with their custom software and help given in the form of written guides and video guides to set everything up.

There are plenty of reviews online, but I have my own unique viewpoints of why Bigcommerce is an e-Commerce store builder that you should consider trying out, if you are really serious about creating your own online store.

Compare Shopify Vs Bigcommerce features below

Cheap Ecommerce Solution : Woo Commerce + WordPress Blog

Now before we go any further , I need to say that if you really are on a low budget and just want to test things out then this other option here might suit you. It includes setting up a wordpress blog and using a free payment plugin called woo commerce.

With this method – you can easily get a wordpress blog for ($3.95 a month) and add a woo commerce plugin (free) to get started quickly with your ecommerce shop /website/or blog. This set up will allow you to run a blog store front on wordpress and accept payments via paypal through the woo-commerce plugin. You might want a spend a bit of extra money ($20 to $60) though to get a decent storefront wordpress design ( I recommend elegant themes for his ) to help attract traffic and build trust in your store.

What is this WooCommerce Plugin ?

WooCommerce is a WordPress plugin that lets you turn your WordPress site into a full-featured online store. It gives you an easy way to handle inventory, payments, shipping, and more.

It gives you reports on customers and products and it works with practically any theme and doesn’t get in the way of your website. It can be easily integrated into an existing site as well.

The difference between this above cheap method and a proper ecommerce platform are many .

In an e-commerce platform, you will be able to manage everything – all in one place like : store management, inventory management, shopping cart systems, social networking, blogging, SEO, security, ease of use and expandability. Costs play a big role in this decision. – but with wordpress and woo commerce – the connection between listing and payments are not as seamless and detailed.

The good thing however is that paypal tells you whenever you receive a payment with this method implemented so you can follow up with delivery of product etc once you receive notification via woocommerce, so it’s not that hard after all.[ I might expand on this whole method on a later post, let me know in comments if you want a tutorial on that. ]

Feel free to choose whichever platform you are comfortable with but lets get on with the main subject here – big commerce platform

Pros and Cons of Using Bigcommerce for your online store

Let’s start with the features that big commerce offers, because every person needs to know what they are getting when they sign up for an online store solution.

Features:

Pros

Integrated Education – As I said earlier their big university video tutorials are a great help on setting things up and teaching you all about this stuff

All in one platform – They have integrated pretty much everything together, so if you want reviews, an easy way to add & delete products, inventory management, integrated payments, analytics, order management, coupon code creation, discount functionality, easy shipping integration, etc., It’s all in one place . They have other marketing buttons like sell on Facebook, google trusted sites which you can integrate in their dashboard.

In- Built Marketing Features – once you have logged into their admin panel and click on the marketing tab, you will find features like email marketing (keeping in touch with customers and promoting products)

Speed & Security for your store – You don’t need to worry about your store being online all the time ( they got a 99.95 % Uptime guarantee) ,as they ensure that your store is speedy to load and also secure from online threats.

Cons:

Design – While Big commerce can still work out of the box , you would probably need to get a designer to make it look top end. Their design functionality is basic but good enough to get started .Their platform is easy enough for an outside designer to make you a custom good design for your shop with their platform.

Pricing plans for Big commerce

The 2nd most important thing you need to know is pricing for the ecommerce plans they have. You might argue, that in fact this is the most important point and I would still agree.

BIGCOMMERCE PRICING

Initially Bigcommerce offered quite a few different pricing plans with different options, but they have refined it over the years and whittled it down to just three plans:

The ‘standard’ and ‘plus’ plans are aimed at individuals and small businesses. The more advanced Enterprise plan is geared more towards large businesses and corporates (users with very high bandwidth & advanced functionality requirements).

About the Popular standard plan:

BIGCOMMERCE STANDARD

Bigcommerce’s cheapest offering, the ‘standard’ plan, costs $29.95 a month and is more expensive than the equivalent starter plans offered by its competitors Shopifyand Volusion ($9 and $15 respectively) – but BC offers a more comprehensive starter plan than either of those plans

One of the good features about Big commerce I like is that, right from the start when they began they had the user in mind and has always had a very good support base with nice written tutorials and also Video tutorials to support their paying customers. They in fact have updated it even further and now got Bigcommerce University which puts a first-class ecommerce education at your fingertips all in one place – to help you succeed.

This section has In-depth videos hosted online store experts will teach you how to launch your store, attract shoppers, improve conversion and build loyalty. As these are on videos you can watch them and when you want according to your schedule.

Bigcommerce also works with Alibaba.com

Alibaba.com (also known as ali express app) the leading cheap gadget , clothing and pretty much everything store that ships stuff directly from china has now partnered with big commerce. You can source high-performing, competitively priced products with Alibaba Wholesale and then learn how to quickly create a beautiful, optimized online store to sell all those great new products you sourced from Alibaba.com

Bigcommerce and Alibaba.com make it easy to source and sell

What some of ALIBABA + Big commerce customers have to say :

In two years, we’ve seen a 150% increase in online sales. We had a big vision, and Bigcommerce has not only supported us, they’ve grown with us.

– Kirsten Dickerson, Raven + Lily

A little bit about ALIBABA.com

How to sell cheap China imports through your own website

Alibaba.com is a leading platform for global wholesale trade owned by Alibaba Group (NYSE: BABA) and is listed on the NEW YORK EXCHANGE.

This website has a extensive network of Chinese wholesale suppliers that also list their low cost products on this website . The partnership of big commerce with alibaba can enable many entrepreneurs to seamlessly pick and sell individual low cost products from this marketplace and sell it for higher prices with the Alibaba+BC collaboration.

How to Set Up Your eCommerce Store with Bigcommerce

Bigcommerce is one of the most popular eCommerce platforms around. It’s not quite as ABC easy as Shopify, but it’s still simple to use, and what you lose in ease-of-use, you gain in customizability and performance.

Below is a video by Think Entrepreneurship to show you how its done and also a written guide below it for you – with a quick step by step process.

In this tutorial, we’ll show you just how easy it is to get started on Bigcommerce. If you’ve already got products to sell – you could be trading within a couple of hours.

Are you ready to join the ranks of many successful online merchants? Then let’s get started!

There will be guides available to help your go through these steps at set it up right as per your need for your store and your personal situation.

Launch Your Store!

With a payment gateway in place, you’re ready to let customers into your store. Return to the Quick Launch Wizard, and click the Launch button.Click the orange button Launch your store!.

Congratulations! you’re now an eCommerce trader! Now, all you need to do is find a way to pull in the customers (traffic).

Yes They have ABANDONED CART SAVER

What i really like about big commerce is the BIGCOMMERCE’S ABANDONED CART SAVER FEATURE . Bigcommerce’s abandoned cart feature – it’s one of the best out there. The tool allows you to create up to three automated emails to site visitors who go part of the way through the sales process only to leave your store without buying anything. T

This has the potential to dramatically increase your revenue with little effort – other than the ‘one-off’ time investment in setting up the automated messages – being involved.

The most popular ECommerce alternative ( shopify)

Shopify is as good as Bigcommerce and some would argue better, their plans have a good affordable starting price and they are good for starting your own store as well as starting a drop shipping business.

Bigcommerce powers some of the world’s most successful online stores. They have hosted startups to billion-dollar businesses with companies in 150+ countries growing with Bigcommerce. They offer a one stop solution for your ecommerce store needs with various flexible pricing plans . The bespoke software creates beautiful and completely customizable online stores with powerful features, with the ability to sell products online with ease , process and ship orders, and track inventory, Bigcommerce has everything an online business needs.

As part of our DigitalGrog Special deal – You can complete an online form to try Bigcommerce FREE for 15 days( no credit card required ). Click here to try it out or try out the free 14 day shopify trial offer just above.

I think we can GainStores Ecommerce platform also in this list and its features are just awesome. it seems to be a tough contender in future who claimed they are top in this segment. This was my personal experience with this platform where as i am running an online boutique since couple of months and orders raised by 24%.

Overall I’d say this article focuses on some great choices for online store platforms. Big Commerce is especially a plus since it is Australian, I think it’s very important that we’re supporting Australian businesses. No doubt your website would load faster if your business is in Australia, if they host in Australia of course.

Magento is a great platform for e-commerce solutions.
I would suggest you AmazingCart. Perfect decision for your Online Store. Very efficient app. Easy to install.
Supports WordPress (WooCommerce), Magento, Opencart and PrestaShop. This is amazing value for money.http://amazingcart.us/

Primary Sidebar

Bluehost March deal for DigitalGrog Readers

About The author

JJ is a blogger and likes to blog about Technology, SEO, E -marketing and write articles on Stockmarkets, Google + and gadgets. JJ is the author and founder of Digital Grog, a widely-read tech and how-to blog. Email:
jeromejf@hotmail.com
"

Counter

Footer

Get Email-Updates from DG

Disclosure

Disclosure: I earn commissions from some of the services (mostly web hosting) that I recommend on my blog,
Digitalgrog.com.au is a affiliate partner to most of the Hosting services that i have listed here and use, which means that in addition to using their service, we also receive a commission for referring new customers. To be fair, though, we still use these services even if we weren’t an affiliate. We don’t recommend any particualr host just because we’re an affiliate (every hosting company offers a similar affiliate program); we recommend certain Hosting companies because they are the best, most reliable option. Plus, because we’re a partner, these providers offers a special price for Digitalgrog readers. Get your hosting today.